


A Date to Remember

by hevevols



Category: Free!
Genre: Awkwardness, Blind Date, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, These guys are dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-02 17:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4068967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hevevols/pseuds/hevevols
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After refusing blind dates from his friends for so long, it's just Haru's luck that the first time he says yes he ends up meeting with a friend from the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Date to Remember

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnHonorMoose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnHonorMoose/gifts).



> Well, this feels like it's going to be a disaster. This is on you, Moose.

Apparently it'd be fun. Apparently he 'just had to go'. Apparently he'd needed a date. Haru had declined every invitation, every suggestion offered by his teammates. So he couldn't help wondering why he was sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for a date. Somehow, he'd been convinced to go on a blind date. It had all started as soon as he'd taken Makoto's advice and actually talked to his teammates, they'd managed to pry their way into his life so quickly, he could have sworn they'd been taking tips from Nagisa, one week in and they'd found out he didn't have a girlfriend. He couldn't have said more than a few words to them and before he knew it they were trying to set him up. They'd been more committed to his relationship status than himself, it didn't take them long to figure out they'd been trying the wrong methods, or at least the wrong gender. When they had found out about his sexuality, it didn't take them long to retry setting him up. To their disappointment, Haru had still refused every date, until the day before. Out of frustration he'd finally said yes and wound up in a small cafe, waiting for a man he didn't know under the watchful eyes of his teammates, unable to escape.   A glance behind himself confirmed their presence, they were all sitting at a table, unsubtly staring at him. He torehis eyes  away to look around the rest of the café, the description they'd given him running through his head. Tall, dark hair and blue eyes. According to them, they were pretty similar, the other guy even used to swim; and, according to them, that was enough reason to set them up. Along with his teammates, he had earned a few prolonged glances and lingering gazes from various girls around the place and a few shared giggles between friends; but it was always like this, so, paying them no notice, he continued to scan the room. Another glimpse at his friends revealed excited expressions and frantic signalling, his date had arrived.

Sousuke had been convinced to go on a blind date under the pretence that he 'didn't get out enough'; it had all led up to him walking into a small café in search of his friends. They had recommended him someone from their swim team and taken it upon themselves to help him get a date, they had been so excited at the time it wasn't a surprise to see them with the same expressions inside. Immediately spotting him, they started signalling at a nearby table, presumably his date. He froze when he saw the man sitting at it. He'd recognise him anywhere. Haruka Nanase. He quickly thought back to the description they'd given him. Black hair, blue eyes and athletic. Unfortunately enough, Nanase fit the description. Then again, he could have been waiting for a girl, he was handsome and courteous enough that it wouldn't be surprising. Just as he was reassuring himself his date wasn't Nanase, he noticed his friends giving frantic signalling to Haruka as well. As the chances of a misunderstanding became slimmer, Sousuke prepared himself to turn around and walk back out the door; before he could do so however Haru turned around. His face quickly showed understanding but it was only his eyes that showed the same panic Sousuke felt; as soon as their eyes met, they both turned to their friends' table. Unfortunately for them, their friends didn't pick up on their discomfort and instead encouraged them with various nods and thumbs up; after Sousuke didn't move, one even started to motion him forwards, mistaking his dread for pre-date nervousness. When Sousuke moved toward the table, Haru sprang up. After a pause he tentatively reached out his hand in greeting, Sousuke hesitated before cautiously reaching out his own to shake stiffly.

"What do we do?" Sousuke hissed between terse greetings, full of thinly-veiled.

"I don't think I'll make it," Haru whispered back. "Make an excuse, save yourself."

"You're on their swim team, you know them better, make the excuse." Sousuke replied as they sat down.

"Isn't brutal honesty your specialty?"

"Aren't blunt responses your forte?" He quipped, attempting to dodge the responsibility. Normally, he would have been able to face the heat, he always would before; he had always used brutal honesty before, it had lost him a few friendships but it _was_ one of his main responses. He was sure his friends would be able to take it too, they wouldn't have stuck around so long if they couldn't take it; but he was also sure it wouldn't get him out of his situation either.

"Touché." Haru responded, clearly avoiding a direct confrontation too. "But I can't get out of this."

"What?" Sousuke tried to keep a straight face, keeping any aggression out of his expression. He couldn't let them catch on. "What do you mean?" He asked quietly.

"I've been refusing for too long, there's no escape anymore."

"What?"

"Now that I've said yes they won't let me go."

"What are they? Vultures?"

"Close enough." They both looked to behind Haru, towards their friends. They were still watching them closely, ebbing them on from the side-lines, talking between themselves. They slowly turned back around. "What now?" Haru asked.

"I don't know, but whatever we do I'm needing coffee." Sousuke stood up, looking over to the menu board, mounted on the wall. "What do you want?" Haru raised an eyebrow but gave no other response. "This is the first time I've said yes too, if you're stuck here, so am I." He continued quietly, trying to prevent the others from hearing. "So if we're going to stay, I'm getting coffee. What do you want?"

"Americano, I guess." Sousuke nodded and walked over to the counter to order. When he was gone, Haru looked behind himself again, his teammates looked almost giddy, convinced of a successful set up. He heard a small 'go get him' from one of them. From Haru's position, he watched them whisper amongst themselves, confirming that Sousuke wasn't coming back immediately, before one of them, the team captain, stood up and shuffled over to him with all the grace of a fish out of water.

"Suzuki." Haru greeted with a slight nod, trying his best to avoid conversation.

"Hey, Nanase! Looks like things are going well!" His captain cheered, patting him on the back.

"Yeah..." Haru returned hesitantly, torn between admitting the truth and continuing to hide his connection to Sousuke.

"I knew it'd work out, you're both so similar! Then again... Both of you are pretty quiet... Maybe you need some advice!" Repressing a snort, Haru did his best to look interested.

"See, Sousuke is really competitive, he used to swim too!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, it's how I met him! He had to stop after his injury, but I'm pretty sure he still likes talking about it and other sports too!" Haru  let his captain's enthusiasm wash over him as he absently nodded through Suzuki's small speech. He almost found it whimsical how his teammate recited the features and interests Haru already knew Sousuke possessed; he did find it odd, hearing about the other from his friend's mouth. Suzuki spoke with such respect and vigour about Sousuke, with such a different perspective from Haru. It felt as if he was talking about a completely different person. Suzuki's silence brought Haru's focus back onto his captain.

"Hey, he's coming back. I'll leave you get to know him yourself." Suzuki smiled at Haru as he retreated back to his teammates. Sousuke returned to their table, coffee in hand.

"What did he want?" Sousuke asked, trying his best to place their drinks down without spilling them.

"Nothing much, just checking up." Sousuke nodded, taking a seat. Haru sipped his coffee tentatively, avoiding further conversation. Sousuke however, wasn't deterred. He could hardly stop now, especially with the diligent watch of his friends, impossible to overlook, just over Haru's shoulder.

"What've you been doing recently?" Haru looked up from his drink at the question, only to shrug it off.

"Nothing much." Trying his best not to frown under the attention of the other table, Sousuke continued.

"You have to have done something... How did you meet them?" He asked, indicating their friends.

"How did you?" Haru returned, after Suzuki's vague note, he'd wanted to find out more.

"Don't dodge the question, Nanase."

"Their own my swim team; at least, they're taking the same course as me..."

"So you're still swimming?"

"Of course." Haru huffed, indignant at the question, and took another sip. Sousuke tried to keep the conversation up, persistent with his questions. It wasn't long until Haru made an excuse and left for the toilet, after that it didn't take long for Suzuki to move back over to their table.

"Is it going well? I knew you guys would get on well!" Sousuke fell speechless, but quickly recovered.

"Yeah, I'd say so." At least, compared to his previous experiences with Haru, it seemed so.

"You seem kind of awkward... I know! It's because you're both so quiet!" Sousuke paused.

"Yeah, sure..."

"Hey, I've got a great idea..." Sousuke listened attentively to Suzuki's plan; it was pretty good, assuming he wanted to pick up Haru... Suzuki gave him a thumbs up. "Give it your best!" Sousuke nodded, with as much sincerity as he could muster.

* * *

When Haru returned from the bathroom, he found Sousuke looking nervous at their table, a muffin in front of him. He sat back down in his seat to ask what was on his mind.

"Why the muffin?"

"Isn't it obvious? I was hungry." Sousuke averted his gaze, Haru couldn't help but find it suspicious.

"Ah."

"You hungry too?" Unable to hide his suspicion any longer, he met Sousuke's question with uncertainty.

 "What?" He didn't express it as elegantly as he'd wanted.

"I asked if you were hungry." Sousuke in return continued to stare to the side, as if he'd just found the most interesting thing in the world.

"Not really..."

"You can have some of my muffin if you want..." Haru couldn't tell if the other was getting a little red or if it was just his imagination, it was definitely getting hotter in the room, at least, it felt as if it was.

"You don't have to share if you don't want to." Haru tried turning his head aside, with no other option to escape from the situation.

"I don't mind." Sousuke unsuccessfully tried to play it cool, faking nonchalance.

"Okay then." Sousuke separated a piece of muffin and picked it up with his fork.

"Here." He didn't need a mirror to tell him he was blushing by this point.

"What are you doing?" To Sousuke's comfort, Haru's cheeks were tinted pink too, his eyes wide.

"Remember, they won't let us go until they're satisfied... so we'll have to act like it's a date..." Sousuke knew it was cowardly to hide behind that premise, but his pride wouldn't let him do anything else.

"Fine..." Haru opened his mouth, letting Sousuke feed him, completely unaware of the effort Sousuke was putting in to stop his hand from trembling, entirely focused on concealing his own nervousness. Their unease was interrupted by their notice of the fervent whispering and gasps behind them, they both looked to the source stiffly, Haru was too self conscious to even start chewing the muffin. Naturally, it was their friends. Naturally, they were acting as if the impossible had just happened in front of their eyes. Naturally, Haru and Sousuke, close to freaking out, immediately turned their attentions back to their table.

The pair awkwardly attempted to act casually, exchanging information over their courses, how their lives were going, how Sousuke's recovery had been moving along.

"If your shoulder's been getting better, we could go swimming some time." Sousuke paused, already discomposed, he hadn't been expecting the suggestion. "Since we live so close together, I mean... I'm sure the rest of my team could join too." As he watched Haru swing between his flustered state and his attempts to regain composure, only one word came to mind. Cute. He quickly shook his head,, trying to expel the thought.

"'Yeah, that'd be great... We could probably get everyone else to come over and swim too."

"Yeah..." Sousuke tried to ignore the look of disappointment in Haru's eyes.

"Though, I'd be fine swimming anytime." Surprised, Haru met his eyes. Sousuke grabbed one of the clean napkins on the table, quickly scrawling a few numbers down. "Here." he said, passing it over. "My number, if you want to arrange a time..."

"Thanks." Haru picked up the napkin carefully, folding it and putting it in his pocket. He quickly glanced at the clock before turning back to Sousuke. "The cafe's going to be closing soon, we should probably get going..." Sousuke looked over to the clock to confirm it.

"Yeah." The two stood up, soon leaving the café. They heard chairs scraping behind them, signalling that the rest of their friends were leaving too, most likely to follow them.

When they were walking down the streets, Sousuke brought back the conversation.

"You know, I doubt they'll let us leave it at this."

"Yeah, they'll think it went pretty well."  Sousuke turned to Haru.

"I think it went pretty well, considering..."

"Yeah," Haru returned quietly. "I wouldn't mind doing this again. Maybe we could go on a real date next time." Sousuke froze while Haru walked ahead.

"Hey, wait up, Nanase!" Sousuke half-jogged back to Haru's side, only to find the other smiling. "What?"

"Just you." Haru went up onto his toes to peck Sousuke on the cheek. "Coming?" Shaking off his surprise, he chuckled.

"Yeah, I'll get you back for that."

"Sure you will." As smug as he sounded, Haru still couldn't wipe his smile of his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was a disaster. I sort of feel like I've mischaracterised them, sorry about that. If you guys see anything wrong, feel free to say so, I'll probably have to correct half the stuff in here. Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
